beginnings

before Waitrose Mill Hill

By Kate Daniel

As one of the original Partners at Waitrose Mill Hill, and one of the original Partners still at Waitrose Mill Hill, I've seen the branch change and develop over the years since we opened.

I've been there when we opened without customer toilets, the building of the new customer service desk, the time when we shut for a couple of days to do all the rebuilding needed when we changed the store around, the moving of the wine department from one side of the store to the opposite corner and toiletries from the middle of the store to where wines used to be. I've seen all the counters change position and styles over the years and Partners come and go.

The original site was a gas pumping station(the type where there are large domes) and when it was sold off it originally went to Safeway but before they started building they had problems(I'm sure they went bust) and Waitrose took over the plans from Barnet council but we had to build to Safeway's original footage plan, without customer toilets. When we opened we spent quite a few months escorting customers to our facilities when they needed them.